August 2016 Newsletter
Welcome to IBT’s August newsletter with an update on our work and relevant news from the media industry. (Download/Print this Newsletter)
Briefing with ITV’s On Assignment
Our next briefing will be with the editors of ITV’s international current affairs strand, On Assignment. The strand appears once a month and features three specially commissioned short films – it’s a great opportunity for IBT members to get off agenda stories onto prime time television. The speakers will be Natalie Fay, Executive Producer and Delilah Jeary, Series Producer. Natalie and Delilah will show clips from the programme and talk about the ideas they are looking for and how best to pitch to them. On Assignment recently won the Women’s Rights in Africa award at the One Media Awards for its reporting from South Africa. You can find out more about the strand here http://www.itv.com/news/topic/on-assignment/ The briefing will take place at 10am on Tuesday September 20th. If you’d like to attend please register via the IBT website.
New Trustees
At last month’s AGM, we elected six new Trustees who join the IBT Board with immediate effect. We’re delighted to welcome Lily Caprani (from UNICEF), Paulette Cohen (Barclays), Michelle Davis (Malaria Consortium), James Georgalakis (IDS), Richard Grange (ActionAid) and Jack Lundie (Oxfam). If you have any issues concerning IBT or its governance, do feel free to get in touch with a member of staff or a Trustee.
Record ratings for Today programme
Radio 4’s Today programme has had its highest ever audiences. The latest Rajar figures cover the period April – June and coincide with the Brexit campaign and referendum vote. Today’s weekly reach in this period rose to 7.4m compared with 6.8m in the previous quarter. Jamie Angus, the Editor of Today, will be the guest speaker at our annual dinner for CEOs in September.
Channel 4 News cracks Facebook
Channel 4 News has enjoyed a remarkable success on Facebook. In the last year it has virtually stopped posting text and stills on social media and concentrated almost exclusively on video. This has paid off and Channel 4 News now has 200m Facebook video views per month – more than the main BBC News Facebook page and more than Sky and ITV News. We hope to organize a briefing with Channel 4 News’ digital editor later this year. http://digiday.com/publishers/channel-4-news-grew-monthly-facebook-video-views-200-million/
On TV
There have been some standout TV programmes in recent weeks. Hugh Fearnley-Whittigstall brought his campaigning zeal to a new episode of War on Waste on BBC1. His focus was non-recyclable coffee cups and packaging. It was good to see the BBC dealing with sustainability in such an accessible way on prime time TV. The BBC also brought us The Refugee Camp, shown on BBC2. This looked in detail at life in Zaatari and provided a useful insight into how aid actually works on the ground. Both programmes are still available to view on the BBC iPlayer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07m8qwz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07lpgqz/episodes/player
Twitter event for NGOs
Twitter is organizing a training session for NGOs to offer top tips on how to use the social media site to extend the reach of your message. The event will take place at 5pm on Tuesday August 30th at Twitter’s London HQ. It will cover best practice, how to plan an online campaign, engaging with conversations on Twitter, how to use its safety, analytics and multimedia tools. Places are free but limited to three per organisation. You can register here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4tHuHE-9qk5PZcnwUFlxbdZMZCvleFpe1Ar6EJF7Ekl8rKA/viewform
Best wishes
Mark
IBT’s mission is to use the media to further awareness and understanding of people’s lives in the developing world and the issues which affect them
